The need for imparting substantive fragrances to, and removing or covering a perceived malodour from solid or semi-solid surfaces including fabric surfaces such as surfaces of articles of clothing being washed, the human epidermis, hair follicles and solid surfaces such as tile kitchen counters has been, over the past century, well-recognized in the prior art. Various attempts at fulfilling these needs using various delivery systems have been disclosed in the prior art.
There is a substantial presence in the international market place of fabric conditioning sheets containing perfumes intended for delivery to surfaces, for example, (a) products marketed under the trademark SNUGGLES (Lever Brothers, New York, N.Y.) described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,133,226 and 6,297,210 and (b) the products disclosed in published applications for U.S. Patent Applications 2003/0013632 and 2003/0069164. Furthermore, there is a substantial presence in the international market place of fabric conditioning liquids containing perfumes for delivery to solid and/or semisolid surfaces such as fabric surfaces, for example, products marketed under the trademark, DOWNY (Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, Ohio) and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,424,134 and 5,574,179.
The aforementioned published U.S. Patent Application 2003/13632 discloses a fabric conditioning article for use in a clothes dryer having a flexible sheet and a fabric conditioning composition deposited thereon including a fabric conditioning agent and perfume particles which are perfume compositions incorporated into porous mineral carriers. Other fragrance delivery systems for delivering fragrance compositions to a surface such as a fabric surface are disclosed in published European Patent Application 1 061 124 A1 and published U.S. Patent Application 2002/0016269. In paragraphs 0033 and 0035 of published U.S. Patent Application 2002/0016269 it is stated:                “[0033] One key embodiment . . . relates to the sustained release of fragrance on fabric wherein . . . particles are delivered via fully formulated detergent compositions . . . ”        [0035] The particles which comprise the fragrance delivery systems . . . comprise an polymer or copolymer which can suitably absorb and deliver the fragrance benefits described herein to fabric. The . . . resulting polymer has the ability to carry one or more fragrance raw materials to a fabric and release said materials once delivered . . . ”        
The use of currently-marketed fabric conditioner sheets as exemplified herein as well as the uses as set forth in the prior art of fragrance-containing particles, for example, particles, the infrastructures of which are porous mineral materials or cyclodextrins, has, however, been determined to be inadequate for imparting aesthetically pleasing substantive fragrances to, and/or substantially eliminating or covering perceived malodours from solid or semi-solid surfaces such as aqueous surfactant-containing composition-treated fabrics.
Nothing in the prior art discloses or suggests a method for imparting substantive fragrances to, and/or removing or covering perceived malodours from solid or semi-solid surfaces using polymeric particles each of which has a free volume, where the polymers which compose the infrastructures of the particles are compatible with (a) malodour substances absorbable into the particle free volumes, and/or (b) fragrances releasably contained in the free volumes of the particles and/or (c) fragrances absorbable into the free volumes of the particles and subsequently releasable therefrom.